North Korea urges South to pay its respects at Kim Jong-il funeral
Seoul plans no delegation and imposes travel ban but will allow select group to at tend
As North Korea prepares for the funeral of Kim Jong-il, the guest list is generating enough speculation to match The Tempest for Shakespearean intrigue.
According to the state media, the government has not invited foreign dignitaries, but has encouraged South Koreans to pay their respects at the ceremony in Pyongyang next Wednesday.
The government in Seoul does not plan to send a delegation and has imposed a travel ban on ordinary citizens, but it has authorised a select group of people to attend
US accepts some blame for Nato strike that killed Pakistani troops
Hopes of easing fraught diplomatic relations come as Islamabad faces fresh political crisis
A lack of trust, poor coordination and inaccurate maps were responsible for the Nato strike that left 24 Pakistani troops dead and relations between Washington and Islamabad at a new low, a Pentagon investigation concludes.
While placing blame on both sides, the US report apparently accepts that American and Afghan commandos were wrong when they concluded there were no Pakistani troops in the area where they were conducting an operation.
The Streets of the Revolution
North Africa, One Year Later
By Alexander Smoltczyk
The Cairo-Dakar Highway runs 8,636 kilometers (5,366 miles) across North Africa, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Nile River. The section along the Mediterranean coast is called the "Transmaghrébine."
Parts of the Transmaghrébine have broad lanes and are outfitted with tollbooths and roadside lighting. In other parts, it is a work in progress or suddenly stops and disappears into the sand. These are the places where there are still World War II-era German bunkers, and where the bombed-out tanks of former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi are already beginning to rust. Some countries have just begun construction, while patches of new asphalt are already missing in others, revealing the old road surface underneath.
DRC opposition swearing-in banned
"It's banned. There is already an elected president who has been sworn in. We cannot have another swearing-in. It's an act of subversion," a source close to the head of the country's police said.
Tshisekedi was due to hold his own "swearing-in" ceremony at 11am, three days after the re-elected Kabila took office.
Tshisekedi, 79, has declared himself "president-elect".
Chen Wei jailed in China for 'subversive' writing
Chinese writer Chen Wei has been sentenced to nine years in jail for "inciting subversion of state power".
The BBC 23 December 2011
Mr Chen published several essays online calling for freedom of speech and reform of China's one-party system.
He was among hundreds of dissidents detained earlier this year after online calls for protests in China inspired by the uprisings in the Middle East.
He told the court he was not guilty and that "democracy will prevail" in China, say reports.
Mr Chen has always insisted he was simply expressing his opinions as allowed under the Chinese constitution.
Series of strong quakes hits New Zealand city still recovering from killer quake
By msnbc.com staff, NBC News and news services
A series of strong earthquakes struck the New Zealand city of Christchurch on Friday, rattling buildings, sending goods tumbling from shelves and prompting terrified holiday shoppers to flee into the streets. There was no tsunami alert issued and the city appeared to have been spared major damage.
Initial reports said one person was injured at a city mall and was taken to a hospital, and four people had to be rescued after being trapped by a rock fall. But there were no immediate reports of serious injuries or widespread damage in the city, which is still recovering from a devastating February earthquake that killed 182 people and destroyed much of the downtown area.
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